


Epiphanies

by mysteriol



Category: Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: F/M, Falling In Love, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Final Fantasy VII Remake Spoilers, Fluff, Friendship, Humour, Matchmaking, Romance, introspective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:27:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24442834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mysteriol/pseuds/mysteriol
Summary: Each of them learns of the exact moment they realize their leader has feelings for the flower girl, even if he's completely oblivious himself. Spikey head’s too dense for his own good.  [ Cloud x Aerith, from the perspectives of the party, post-Remake. ]…And then it hits Cloud like full force  - what his comrades have been trying to do for him all this time.They’re playing matchmaker. In his love life.
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough/Cloud Strife
Comments: 17
Kudos: 123





	Epiphanies

**Author's Note:**

> a/n:  
> set some time before the defeat of Sephiroth. Non-canon ... because I have no idea what Square is going to throw at us in Remake 2.  
> But otherwise, can be taken post-Remake after meeting the rest of your party – Barret, Cid, Vincent, Yuffie, Nanaki etc…  
> Expect lots of gang friendship aside from the usual CxA stuff hehe XD bring out the beer jugs!!  
> apply usual disclaimer here of being a lazy bum and not beta-reading my own stuff lol 
> 
> Myst-san

Contrary to popular belief, Barret’s the first person to find out.

Well, to be fair, he’s known Spikey the longest after all. (The group has agreed to code name their leader that title behind his back. Like a morse code or sort. “Sssh, you can’t betray the gang!” Yuffie will scream all the time and warn everyone.” So Spikey, it is.)

Barret had known the leader of their pack since he was an arrogant, aloof jerk with his couldn’t-care-less attitude. Damn bugger only cared about his merc money. Nothing else.

And one fine day, big man saw it all changed.

Barret thinks back now to that painful saga of him climbing 59 flights of stairs up the Shinra HQ. It’s a terrible ordeal to put _anyone_ through, and Barret knows, this Aerith girl must be pretty special for Spikey to waste his calve and thigh muscles away for her. Oh wait, let’s not forget the fact he’s braving a whole onslaught of a million Shinra troops and they’re literally barging in one humongous building despite being a three-man team, to save _one_ lady.

First question Barret truly wants to ask Cloud when he learns of this suicidal mission is, “How much the girl payin’ you, Cloud!? She better be worth all the Gil she’s paying you to rescue her out of that haystack of Shinra!”

And then Barret has the decency to keep his mouth shut when he realizes, with bewilderment and stunned astonishment (and Barret doesn’t get shocked easily. Seldom. Ever.) that Cloud’s earning zero Gil and he’s going into this shitstorm of a hole willingly.

All for one flower girl.

…Who also happened to have the heart of a gold and had saved his little girl Marlene without even thinking twice.

Some hell of a flower girl she must be.

Stealing Spikey’s head and heart.

Barrett already knows she’s someone special to Spikey even as he reaches the last flight of steps. Every corner, every turn, literally every step they’ve taken in the Shinra HQ, Spikey’s reminding them of their priority. _Aerith this, Aerith that, no Barret, don’t be rash, take your personal vengeance elsewhere. Save Aerith first. That’s the priority._

For the first time, Spikey earns some respect points from the big man. Guy actually cares for someone other than himself? What a miracle.

Barret’s looking forward to meet this flower girl.

And when he finally does, he understands why she’s stolen their leader’s heart.

Of course, Barret suspects it all along just by seeing the worry and resolute determination in Cloud’s eyes. Hey…first time realizing Spikey has an emotional range into the anxiety/panic spectrum. What a shocker. Barret has a revelation that day; he sees Spikey in a completely new light and has utmost pride for that little merc who has…matured suddenly.

And when Spikey turns to him and tells him he’ll stay and stall for time, _so just please take her away somewhere safe and get out of Shinra HQ_ , can Barret really help the disbelief that hits him?

“Please, Barret, I’m asking you.”

Whoa, Spikey pleading him?

Barret’s stunned. He doesn’t show it. He huffs, and agrees.

Whoa. The power of a flower girl. Hats off to her for melting their unflappable leader.

Barret looks to Aerith’s direction. And knows, he doesn’t have a choice. Barret knows he’ll die for Marlene, so he knows how Cloud feels.

This, is the exact moment, Barret learns the leader of their pack, is in love with the flower girl.

Though, he thinks, Spikey’s too oblivious to even realize at this point. Or still too preoccupied with his personal issues.

But whatever. If Spikey’s asking him nicely, begging him to take the love of his life somewhere safe, Barret’s going to comply.

_That lovesick idiot._

* * *

Tifa’s the second person to find out. Although she probably feels she’s the one who remains the longest in denial. Perhaps of her own personal feelings towards the leader of their pack. But honestly, who can fault her? She’s been with him since they first met again after many years apart – the last she saw him being back in Nilbelheim almost half a lifetime ago.

Her experience… she thinks it mirrors Barret’s closely. Because the big guy’s right there beside her when she finds out. It’s the second when Cloud’s holding off the Shinra soldiers and Rufus for them.

But she knows he’s not stalling time for them.

He’s stalling enough time for Barret so he can safely take the flower girl safe and out of here.

“Take Aerith!” He shouts over the winds to the man with the gun.

No mention of anyone else. Not even a “take everyone and get out of here!”

Cloud’s too single-minded and focused to remember anyone else external to his priority: saving her.

And that’s the exact moment, immediately right after Barret’s revelation, that Tifa learns the spikey-haired leader of their group, has thrown all caution to the wind to infiltrate this gigantic building swimming with enemies, just to rescue one flower girl.

Doesn’t take a dimwit to realize that guy’s in love.

Of course, Cloud doesn’t look like he’s even remotely aware of his emotions.

He’s too caught up in his own personal battles to even figure out his own feelings at this time. In war and hardships and in the context of saving the Planet, romance takes a sideline in Cloud’s world.

And for once, Tifa is secretly glad for this timely procrastination.

She can’t stand the thought of losing her hero to someone else. Well, not for now.

* * *

Vincent’s the third person to realize it.

Guy’s a vampire who’s been hibernating for years. You’ll think he’s blind to human emotions by default. But this is the same guy with red cape who’s been in love with Lucrecia so deeply and hurt so badly that he’s willingly gone to shut himself out to repent from some sort of sins. So yes, if Vincent has an expertise, it’s probably in the field of ‘loving someone so deep it fucking scars and can kill you and turn you into a complete monster’ romance-horror kind of sad satire.

He’s firsthand witnessed himself in love and fall into an abyss during the worst of it. He’s buried himself with sins and he’s a comedy to himself at this point concerning how much he still loves only one person; how his heart can accommodate one only in his many lifeforms and lifetimes. He won’t ever forget Lucrecia.

So you’ll think Vincent recognizes a man in love the moment he sees it.

Because obviously, Vincent’s been in love, one time over which is one too many for his own good. He’s come off broken out of it, so he knows all the signs. He knows the symptoms of a man tragically, unfortunately, deeply entangled in the clutches of… love.

The first time he sets his eyes on Cloud Strife, he senses something fishy.

 _Then_ he sees the way their leader looks at the flower girl…and all the puzzles fit into pieces.

Oh.

Doesn’t take Vincent a second longer to figure _that_ one out.

Yup. The symptoms. Check. Check.

Panic in Mako blue eyes when the flower girl’s in potential danger? Check.

Instant leap to her side in battlefields when someone’s out to hurt her? Check.

Camping overnight outside in Midgar and checking she’s asleep and safe before he retires to bed? Check.

Waking up the next day to check her first before everyone else? Check.

Fear, anxiety, frustration, anger – emotions Vincent knows very well for a man who’s in love – flashes like a maelstrom in those Mako blue eyes all the time whenever the flower girl’s absent. She might be gone just for an hour with Tifa to get some potions from the next town, or just out strolling in the next sun with Nanaki, or just gone off on her own to trek in the forest…

And then you see Cloud tensing up and you observe that punchbag of emotions hit him like a sack in the gut, and you know… it doesn’t even take a Vincent to learn; even a blind person can tell –

…Guy’s in love.

And Vincent tries not to laugh, so he ends up hiding a knowing smirk behind his red cape all the time staring at Cloud…whose gazes are solely reserved for the flower girl.

Spikey absurdly kind of reminds him of himself, years back, when he first fell in love with Lucrecia.

Bittersweet memories.

Vincent shakes his head, tries to get the vision out of him.

He hopes Spikey only comes to realize of his emotions, sooner, than he himself ever did before it was too late.

* * *

Yuffie, amongst all of them, is actually sharper and more observant than they think.

She’s the fourth person to figure Cloud out.

Because in her exuberance of youth, she sees more things clearly from her child-like perspective that many adults tend to deny themselves of. There are no rose-tinted glasses in her imagination, so in her world, everything is either black or white.

It’s easy to put two to two together really.

It started with a prank.

Yuffie loves her materias. So much that sometimes when she’s sure Spikey head’s not looking, she’ll try to sneak one materia into her pocket…only to have Barret threaten to rip her head apart with his gun.

“Aw, you’re no fun!”

And then _that’s_ when Aerith mentions about the materia in her hair. She explains she doesn’t know what it’s used for.

Yuffie’s eyes light up like sparkles at that mention.

The idea of stealing Aerith’s materia in her hair when she’s asleep actually pricks at her like a bugging bee that doesn’t stop. Yuffie fantasizes over it, mulls over the idea – but knows she loves the flower girl too much to do it even as a prank.

Still, that doesn’t prevent her from thinking about how fantastic and how brilliant stealing Aerith’s materia might turn out.

…And her reverie gets intervened by Spikey head who’s casting death glares at her. If daggers can kill, this it it. Cloud’s got her pierced through and through with Mako eyes.

That night when the party’s about to retire to bed and Yuffie actually thinks about carrying out the plan to _steal_ Aerith’s materia from her hair when she’s sound asleep, she’s dragged out of their tent faster than she can scream Materia.

“Argh! Cloud, let me go, you twit!!” She struggles. Their leader lets her go, and she flops to the ground. She swats Spikey like flies. “What do you think you are doing!?”

“I know what you’re thinking.” He narrows his eyes at her. Wow, he’s pissed. “Don’t you dare, Yuffie.”

Yuffie huffs, just thinks of it as nothing and casually says, “Why do you care?”

Cloud doesn’t answer. Just continues to shoot knives from his eyes into Yuffie’s. He’s trying to intimidate and break her defenses and scare her into submission! She knows it! She won’t let him. So she decides to pounce on his weakness – any, that she thinks she can find.

“Oohhhh, you think I’m going to hurt Aerith? Is that why you’re scared shitless, Spikey head?” She teases. Yuffie entirely means it as a joke to throw the spikey-haired leader off his rails. Just saying _anything_ to stop him from shooting her down with his death glares.

And something funny happens. Something so incredulous, Yuffie does a double take.

Spikey blushes.

 _Ohmygod._ Is all Yuffie can think of when she sees color rising in Cloud’s cheeks. _Did I just…hit the jackpot with Spikey head Leader? Ohmygod._

Yuffie stares, open-mouthed in flabbergast at their leader.

And that, is the exact moment, she learns…

Chocobo head loves the flower girl.

Yuffie decides…she’s going to use this knowledge to her advantage and make him squirm each time he yells at her or orders her around. Now, she’s got the upper hand. Yuffie’s got the royal flush to make their leader quiver in weak knees because she knows what to do or say to make him blush.

_Yes! Checkmate. Spikey’s in love._

* * *

And the whole group finds out eventually of course. The rest of them. One by one. Cid, when he once purposefully flies the Highwind too high out of excitement because it’s Shera’s birthday, and the whole Highwind shakes hitting a turbulence somewhere. He turns around with cigarette in his mouth and the first thing he sees is Spikey head running towards Aerith’s side to grab her, making sure she doesn’t fall to the ends of the other airship as their flight vessel nearly flips over from the turbulent force.

Cid blinks that time. But he’s not stupid. He has age as his triumph card and years of experience. Of course he knows love when he sees it. Goddamn, he loves Shera to the hells and back.

So to confirm his suspicions, he flies the Highwind exceptionally fast the second time and then rams the brakes. The force throws everyone off their balance and off the ground. Barret bellows at him, “What the hell! Potty mouth, yer better get yer shit together!”

Cid pivots around and catches sight of Cloud disregarding everyone else on the Highwind. Spikey’s got his arms around the Cetra again, and he’s holding her like she’s precious gem to him. The sword fighter obviously cares too much. “Are you ok?” Spikey’s asking the flower girl.

Cid laughs, his cigarette falling onto the ground. He smashes it to smeary bits with the back of his boot.

Well, well, he can’t wait till one day their kids are going to populate his Highwind.

That’ll be fun, won’t it?  


* * *

And by now, it’s obvious. _Everyone’s_ doing their part to help support their very dense, incredibly oblivious chocobo head leader lead out the main role in his own fairy tale. They want him to succeed. But he’s way, way too dense for his own good. Boy still probably doesn’t know of his own feelings, poor thing. They don’t blame him.

“Lack of romantic experiences.” Yuffie always says and sniggers behind his back. Tifa goes to shush her and some of them in the group breaks out in laughter.

Cloud looks at them and everyone else falls silent and pretends to be busy with something on their feet.

But these little things they do – it’s obvious to everyone else, except Cloud himself.

Every time they set up a tent and sit around a campfire, somehow, one way or another, Cloud ends up sitting by Aerith’s side. It happens that the group members will shift and rotate their positions in the circle until that happens. If it doesn’t, Yuffie pretends to trip and then shoves Cloud so he’s literally sat next to the Cetra.

Or that other time when they’re settled down in a nice little town, and Cloud wants to visit the weapon shop for upgrades. Nanaki has asked very politely for all of them to take a little rest in their rooms, but has suggested that “perhaps Aerith would be up to accompany you?”

The flower girl ends up being his sole companion to the weapon shop.

It happens more and more. ‘Coincidental’ times when Cloud finds himself somehow alone with Aerith despite all of them being around, but elsewhere. They’ll be at the Gold Saucer as a group, and somehow everyone scatters in different directions – and he’s alone with the flower girl, left in a state of fluster and sudden panic that he’s alone with a _girl_ , and worst, she’s Aerith who’s stolen his heart and he doesn’t know yet.

Or the other time when they’re setting up tents for the night, and everyone issues some weird excuse that they’re going to trek out to scavenge for food in the distance, merrily leaving Cloud and Aerith on their own to painstakingly build their base from scratch.

And nobody forgets hilariously at Costa de Sol, when Yuffie suggests they all rent jet-skis or boats just for the kicks of it, and everyone really is in a mood to just let down their hair for once and forget about the world ending because they’re at a goddamn resort kind of place. Well, Cloud somehow finds Aerith on the back of his jet-ski, with her arms around his waist.

He doesn’t know how she ends up behind him. Or how Yuffie’s convinced him to rent a jet-ski in the first place.

He vaguely remembers Vincent telling the jet-ski stallkeeper to save a double-seated jet-ski for the “couple over there looking like lovebirds”.

…And inevitably, it eventually dawns on the very dense Spikey of what his comrades are doing to _him._

It happens at the Gold Saucer. For some reason the whole group decides it’s time for another R & R. They’re all about to line up to get on the gondola ride, which definitely fits at least 4 person in a cabin.

And when Cloud’s about to step in with Tifa, Barret and Nanaki in one gondola, they’ve hastily shut the door and he’s left to take the next one. But then just as he’s about to get in with Vincent, Yuffie and Cid, they’ve done…the exact same thing.

“Quick, press the damn button!” Yuffie’s the first to let the cat out of the bag. She’s the youngest. Obviously someone’s got to do the honors eventually. “Shut them out! Let them take the next one alone!”

Something akin to horror descends on Cloud’s face. His look of mortification when he realizes he’s going to be in the next gondola with Aerith, petrifies him to his spot for three whole seconds.

He remembers the faint smirk on Vincent’s face. Sees Cid’s cheerful wave at him. “Goodbye lovebirds!”

…And then it hits him like full force - what they’ve been trying to do _for_ him all this time.

Despite his earlier apprehension and nervousness, Cloud finds himself looking down with a wistful smile – one so small, it’s barely visible to the naked eye. But it’s there, and he’s smiling.

He can’t believe his comrades, his _friends._

They’ve known it all this time. They’re playing _matchmaker._ In his love life. Or lack thereof, as current circumstances reflect. 

He’s been so damn blind.

“Hey, Cloud, shall we take the next one?” A voice breaks out of his momentary trance.

He turns around and finds himself face to face with her – the flower girl. The one who’s stolen his heart and everyone around him has firsthand witnessed it and tried to matchmake them together but he’s been blind up to this point. Or maybe…he’s just been in denial all this while. He can’t believe this girl – she’s shattered his walls completely. He has zero defense mechanism around her.

Nadda. Zilch.

So that explains his heart dropping to his toes, his skin crawling, his ears burning – as Aerith reaches out a hand and wraps his fingers around his. She’s guiding him into the next gondola so they catch it in time before it moves away.

Cloud stares at their intertwined fingers.

He’s the _last_ person in the entire group to realize his own damn feelings. And he calls himself the leader of their pack. What a tragedy, by Cloud Strife.

His throat is dry. His blood is rushing so fast to his brains, he can’t think straight.

Not when she’s looking at him like that. Doesn’t help there’s fireworks bursting behind her now into the Gold Saucer’s anniversary night, and the luminescent colors are illuminating every minute detail of her face.

If she’s a witch, she’s enchanted every part of him.

The spell doesn’t break.

The door to the gondola closes behind them.

Cloud’s painfully aware of their distance. She’s so close, he can smell her scent. Strawberry with a hint of flowers – it hits his nose and sends shivers down his spine. He wants to remember her this way, forever.

Her eyes search his. “You okay, Cloud?”

He doesn’t need to look down to know she hasn’t yet let go of their hands.

Intertwined together, just like fate colliding them against each other. (Although many times non-coincidental thanks to the efforts of his comrades – now Cloud realizes in retrospect.)

He has to smile, chuckle even inwardly at the absurdity. Who would have thought the leader relied on his comrades for something as simple as his love life?

He returns her gaze now. Bravely. Wholly. Their eyes meet, in time with the burst of fireworks lighting up the night sky.

This moment’s perfect.

He tightens his fingers around hers. He doesn’t let her go.

“Yeah…Now it’s perfect.”

_Everything’s perfect now._

Spikey Chocobo head leader finally knows.

It’s a mission success and mission accomplished for the party.

Cloud sets a memo to thank them later. He knows how much they like the donuts the Gold Saucer sells.

For now… for now, with the flower girl by his side, **this** is enough.

**FIN**

* * *

a/n:

aww

who would have thought the gang playing matchmaker for Mister Cloudy chocobo head leader?

I’ll put out the disclaimer here first that the storyline’s definitely non-canon in case you missed my beginning notes. I doubt you can rent jet-skis at Costa de Sol or buy donuts at Gold Saucer… unless Square just heard my wishes and then remake 2 changes all of that.

LOL

Review/comment to make my day!

Myst-san


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